About this project

$5,930

pledged of $5,000 goal

96

backers

FARA

Fara is a new action RPG for the iPhone and iPod touch. It is the first title by Pixel and Texel, a new game studio created by two experienced developers (see the bio at the bottom of the page for more info on us). This is a title with unique mechanics, a beautiful art style, and a quirky story. Fara is the game we’ve always wanted to make. It is both a homage to the retro titles we know and love, as well as our specific vision for touch screen gaming.

Our dissatisfaction with the current App store action RPGs is what drove us to this project. There is no awkward virtual D-Pad, shoehorned design, or convoluted menu system in Fara. We love both the iPod touch and the iPhone, so we wanted to develop a game that would be perfect fit for those devices. Our focus in creating Fara was to take advantage of the unique qualities a touch screen offers, instead of working against them. We think that this attitude has turned our project into something that is intuitive, engrossing, and, most importantly, lots of fun to play. As you find out more about the game, we hope you choose to team up with us as we finish creating Fara, and we are thrilled to share the development process with you!

GAMEPLAY

The world of Fara has tons to do, so we’d like to tell you about some of its features. Our game contains many of the systems you would expect in any action RPG, like quests, fast paced combat, and items, as well as some gameplay features that are completely new. Early in the development process, we decided to integrate the Box 2D physics engine in our own game engine. This adds a lot of excitement and fun to the game world, as we are able to combine touch screen puzzles and action, such as using your finger to control a battering ram, a ballista with flaming arrows, or tilting the iPhone to roll the player around in a special bubble shield. Everything in Fara is dynamic, so moveable objects behave in a realistic manner. Even characters in the game have physics properties, so combat has a real feeling of weight and reaction.

CONTROLS

As we mentioned earlier, the controls in Fara take complete advantage of the touch screen. To walk anywhere in the game world, simply tap or drag your finger where you’d like to go. Combat is a simple series of swipes and taps, and menu navigation is a breeze. Our constant focus is to create an experience that’s intuitive and easy to use. Puzzles always make simple use of the touch screen, so that you can enjoy the interaction instead of fighting with the controls.

ART STYLE

All of the world artwork in Fara exists on one giant painted canvas. Characters in the game are a pixel art style, so they stand out from the background, while portraits and cut scenes are rendered as beautiful paintings. It has been our goal to develop the best looking 2D action RPG possible, and we are excited to combine our love of nostalgia with modern hardware capable of complex effects, particle systems, quality animation, and high resolution textures.

MUSIC / SOUND DESIGN

The music in Fara is being composed and recorded in house. From the beginning of the project, we knew that the soundtrack would play a huge part in the mood of the game, so we created something that incorporates both symphonic and chiptune styles. Each area has its own theme, as well as additional music for key story moments. The game’s soundtrack will be released as a full length album soon after Fara’s launch, with careful attention to creating something that stands as a cohesive whole on its own. Sound design and editing is also being handled by our studio, to create a world that is dynamic and exciting.

FUNDING

We hope that you choose to partner with us as we continue developing Fara! In this process, we’d like to be completely transparent about where your generous support will go. Essentially, our Kickstarter campaign will help us push to the finish line with our first game, so we can share it with the world. Your support will help fund things like:

Software fees for keeping all of our tools legitimate and up to date.

Hosting and developer fees for creating our game.

Art supply fees (new digital tablet, legal reference images).

Marketing.

Legal fees.

Beard trimming. Brett is getting kinda hairy.

Coffee. We get tired and need to stay awake!

This game is currently our full time job and any support is greatly appreciated! We are thrilled to be working on Fara and can’t wait for you to play it. Thanks!

The world of Fara is quite large. Only a tiny portion of it is visible in the screenshots and video here on Kickstarter. Additionally, there are side quests that supplement the main quest storyline, hidden treasure to locate, and plenty of secrets to discover in the game world.